The final three months of the year have been challenging financially for the Foundation, with a quieter rainy season than anticipated resulting in fewer on-site guest donations. Thanks to our long-term funders, our new partners Benchmark holdings and our Crowd-funders in combination with the amazing support of the El Rio Hostel, we have pulled out all the stops to still deliver arguably our most impactful quarter ever, adding eight outstanding community events to our already very packed weekly timetable 🙂
Each month at the Foundation, through our seven community projects, we promote our Foundation skill or value of the month. And where else to start in our October – December 2023 round-up than with our Halloween Horror Maze experience to celebrate ‘CREATIVITY’ month.
On Saturday 4th November, we partnered with El Laberinto Macondo to provide a uniquely terrifying experience for local children in a huge hedge maze. We were very proud of our Horror house last year, but this year was on another level. 15 staff in used clothes and home-made costumes waiting in the darkness (out of love) to provide moments of joy and terror in equal measure that the children will never forget.
They will also never forget their twice a week Tutoring sessions that take place during term-time throughout the year. You can read about the impact of our flagship Tutoring programme HERE. Huge thanks to La Vida, the Lata Foundation and now Benchmark Holdings for supporting the education and wellbeing of 70+ children every week in our local community.
Our 60 hour+ Community English programme has also gone from strength to strength with El Rio hostel staff making fantastic progress in the last 6 months especially. Children at Tutoring also improved their English scores this term by 21%. And children’s confidence at in-school English lessons has gone up 40%.
At the El Rio Games, only our cricket club succumbed to rainy season (with our coach out of the country), so our 24 other sports and arts clubs carried on sometimes in the extremely pouring rain. This term’s highlights included the Ultimate Frisbee tournament on Sat 7th October where the standard is getting really rather outrageous and our end of term P.Nuevo celebration day with 108 children taking part!
You can read about the 13 sports clubs and 7 festival days the Richardson Family very kindly sponsored through the El Rio Games programme: HERE.
We also shared our El Rio Games process on two separate team building days with 90+ El Rio hostel Staff taking part in festival afternoons involving relay races, dance workshops, team-building games, mini-English lessons, telas and frisbee golf. We feel extremely lucky to have El Rio Hostel for a home so it was brilliant to share our methodology for teaching new skills with a huge focus on team spirit and fun!
On the 23rd November, we combined our El Rio Games and Indigenous Community programme to run a very large end of term multi-sports and eco festival with 10 activities and 120+ kids taking part. We also ran a community consultation with students, teachers and community leaders in Q.del Sol and we are excited to share our conclusions for our 2024 project in the next month or so. If you know of any partners/individuals who might like to support our Indigenous community programme, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Little Kids’ Activities continues to be a great success with all parents rating their satisfaction of the programme at 10/10. With Talent shows, karaoke, performances, sports clubs, art experiences, music, dancing, environmental education sessions and even flying through the air on Telas it’s no wonder. ‘Dinosaurs and humans is my favourite game! And cooking was my favourite activity! It was so FUN!’ – Bodhi, 4 years old.
Our Environmental education programme pilot has also gone extremely well, especially at Little Kids’ activities. We are hugely grateful to our very dedicated volunteer Angelica who led the programme for 6+ months and this term delivered two earth-weeks (activities every day in different communities) with over 250 children taking part.
Our Art and Dance sessions have also gone from strength to strength providing local children with a much-needed creative outlet. ‘Our objective was to have an open space in which kids have fun learning to draw and craft while using their observation and imagination. My favourite moment this term was working together on the film project. At first the kids are a bit shy with new activities but once they gain confidence and start to play, it’s wonderful.’ – Ami, Art programme lead
At our end of term closing event, we set up an art exhibition with interactive workshops, a cinema screening and gallery and were treated to performances from our four dance clubs, together and separate on a home-made stage. Please click HERE to see the performers in action. It was an amazing and a fitting way to end the year.
Thank you to everyone who has made the above possible and our delivery throughout 2023. I feel extremely proud of our whole team and how hard they have worked throughout the year. The standard of delivery across all programmes has been exceptional and our community festival days especially have set a ludicrously high bar for next year. I can’t wait!
The headline for 2024 is we would love your help for ideas for new funding avenues. We now have the team and a tried and tested structure in place for our community programmes to have a huge and long-term impact in our local area. The missing piece, somewhat predictably, is funding. So any ideas, links, potential partners, however unlikely, please do send them our way. Every £6 delivers an hour of education and joy in our local area and what better way to spend it 🙂
Our El Rio Games = Joy campaign 2023-24 is still live, so please do share with anyone in your networks who might like to get involved.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported us to build to this stage.
I hope you have a brilliant start to 2024!
I hope you have a brilliant start to 2024!
Kind regards,
Felix and the El Rio Foundation Team
